Write down the numbers your phone remembers for you
If your phone is dead, locked or lost, whose number do you know? One by heart, one on paper, and your phone’s emergency page filled in.
From paramedics, ER staff, a 911 dispatcher and people who were once stranded without a phone, set beside the US federal preparedness site's family communication plan — including an open disagreement about whether responders check phones at all.
Put your phone face down for a moment and try this: whose number do you know? Not recognise — know, well enough to dial it on a stranger’s phone with shaking hands.
Learn one or two numbers by heart, carry them written down, and fill in the emergency information on your phone, because in an emergency the phone may be dead, locked, broken or gone.
Why the phone is not enough on its own
Everything on your phone is behind a battery, a screen and a lock. The people list the ways that fails: the battery dies, the phone is lost or stolen, it is smashed in the same accident that hurt you, or it is locked and your ordinary contacts sit behind the passcode. Some people say it simply — phone-based solutions fail when the battery is dead or the phone is lost or damaged.
And your own memory can go too. People split three and three on whether knowing the numbers by heart is enough: some say they know their family’s numbers and need nothing more, others answer that under shock the memory goes — people who had been hurt or in shock describe forgetting numbers they knew perfectly well, and one says a written number is what got them help when their phone was destroyed. That is the case for having the number in two places.
Three places, not one
Many people back each of the three places below, and they work together rather than instead of each other.
In your head. Many people say learn at least one or two numbers by heart — a parent, a partner, a close friend — so you can dial them on any phone. How many is the right number is argued: one person says six to eight is realistic, not twenty; another that two or three critical ones will do. People share their tricks: set a phone PIN to part of the number, sing it to a tune, or delete the name from your contacts so you have to dial it yourself. And choose someone who picks up unknown numbers — one person warns a memorised number is useless if the person never answers a call they do not recognise, and one person’s answer is a parent or older relative with older phone habits. Tell them now that a call from a number they do not know might be you.
On paper. Many people say carry a written list of important numbers in your wallet or bag, for the day the phone is unavailable. The US federal preparedness site’s family plan says the same: write the numbers down, make sure everyone carries a copy in a wallet, bag or backpack, and put a copy on the fridge. One person suggests laminating it. If payphones were part of your plan, people say they are rare, broken or gone in many places; the realistic fallback is asking someone to lend you their phone for one call, which some people say is still possible.
On the phone, where a stranger can reach it. Many people say fill in your phone’s emergency or medical information, which can be shown from the lock screen without the passcode. Two add that this is what the feature is built for — a designed emergency view, not somebody snooping through your phone. Some people add the habit of saving a contact as ICE, for “in case of emergency”, and the federal family plan recommends it too, and says to tell that person about any medical needs you have. One person points out a side benefit: a phone with an emergency contact on it is easier to return when you lose it. The first question below goes through what to put in it.
What emergency staff actually look at
This is what the person who started one discussion wanted to know, and the honest answer, set out below, is that people who do the job disagree. Whichever side is right about the crew who comes for you, here is the part you can act on. At the scene, a crew is keeping you breathing, and what they can see — a bracelet, a necklace, a card — reaches them faster than a screen they would have to find, wake and read. Some people say a visible medical alert, worn or carried, beats a digital one for exactly that reason; one person says the phone’s text is too small to read quickly in the field; one person adds that blood type and allergies on a phone can be missed when time is short. If you live with something a crew must know in the first minutes — diabetes, or a severe allergy — that is the case for something they can see without touching your phone. One person suggests tags worn on a motorbike ride for the same reason.
Numbers worth having besides family
Some people add the non-emergency number for your local police, fire and ambulance services, so that problems that are not emergencies do not go to 911 in the United States or 999 in the UK. One person adds an emergency vet and a poison line for pets, and finding where the emergency vet is before a panicked night. For people, the US line is Poison Help, 1-800-222-1222, and in the UK, NHS 111 is the line for urgent advice that is not an emergency. The federal family plan also suggests someone out of town as a contact, because in a disaster a long-distance call can get through when local lines are jammed, and it says a text may get through when a call will not. And children need a number and an address too, one person says, because a child may have to reach an adult without a device.
Who this page does not have an answer for
If there is nobody you would put on the card, people did not solve that, and this page will not pretend to. A wallet card with your medical needs, and a visible alert if you have a condition that matters, still help the people treating you, even with no one to call.
The community disagrees on this one
The question one discussion set out to answer is whether emergency staff actually look at your phone. People who do the job disagree.
The phone gets checked
Some people say emergency staff routinely check the phone's lock-screen information and emergency contacts to identify someone and reach their family, that it has saved lives, and that it matters most when the person cannot speak. One person here says their agency teaches its responders to look at the phone, the wallet and any bracelet, and that it has identified patients with diabetes who had forgotten their bracelets.
The phone waits
Some people say responders rarely, if ever, look at a phone while treating someone: they will not hold up treatment to go through a device, and a bracelet or a card in the wallet is faster and more reliable. In a separate discussion, people sided this way too, and one person puts it plainly: during an active emergency the information is taken from bracelets and wallet cards, or after the person is stable.
People give their own decider: it depends on the department and the person, and the phone's emergency page is still worth filling in as a low-effort backup. One exchange offers a way both can be true — at the scene, the crew treats you; later, once you are stable in hospital, staff do try to find out who you are and call your people. On that reading, which is this page's, the phone's page helps most with the second, and a visible medical alert or a wallet card with the first.
Common questions
What should I put in my phone's emergency information?
The things someone would need if you could not tell them: the medical conditions you live with, the medicines you take, your allergies, and one or two emergency contacts — one person here lists the first three, and adds recreational drug use, which is argued below. Look in your phone's settings for a page called something like emergency information or medical ID; it can be shown on the lock screen with no passcode; one person warns it stays empty until you fill it in, and two note the menus differ between phone makers, so search your settings for it. Ordinary contacts, even one saved as ICE, are behind the lock, one person points out; the emergency page is the part a stranger can reach. Blood type is worth less than you might expect: one person explains that hospitals test your blood themselves before a transfusion and do not rely on what a phone or card says. Keep the contacts current — one person reminds readers to change them after a break-up — and one person adds a line of context, such as a partner's number being the one to call when the children are with them. Another adds who looks after the pets at home. Some people argue about listing recreational drug use: one says medical staff only care about treatment, the other that in the United States a seized phone or wallet can be used as evidence. The decider they give is your local law, and it is your call.
Isn't a card in my wallet a gift to a thief?
It is a real worry, and people argue it both ways. Two say a list of family numbers gives someone who steals your wallet exactly the people to call with a story or a demand; others answer that the risk of being stranded without any number is greater than the risk of the card being misused. Their decider is your own situation — how likely theft is where you are, against how likely it is that your phone is dead or gone when you need it. One person points out that the card is no help if it is stolen along with the phone, which is the argument for having one number in your head as well.
Why would I need numbers memorised if I'm arrested?
Because your phone is taken from you. Some people make the point: once your phone is confiscated, the number of someone who can arrange bail or find you a lawyer has to be in your head, or you may sit in a cell longer than you need to. Some people add that some police departments let you write numbers down before they take the phone and some do not, so you cannot count on it. One person notes that knowing a number does not help if you cannot pay for the call; another answers that any chance to use a phone is worth being ready for. A 911 dispatcher here confirms the obvious from the other side: the emergency line has no list of people who will come and get you out.
Same situation, another step
- The way out of a rip is sidewaysAn emergency
What people worked out
Shorter, plainer notes on the same ground — each with the number of people behind it.
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